Service guide dogs: Saving and improving lives

On the eleventh floor of Sunway University, a big yellow retriever is playing football with a handful of people. It’s a common enough pastime but some of the participants are blind. They’re playing with Lashawn, a three-year-old guide dog from China. He’s a big boy with laughing brown eyes and a waving tail that says welcome. He’s also wearing a shirt that announces his name and his job.

“I lost my sight to glaucoma in 2007.” Stevens Chan Kum Fai walks through the room and almost falls over a low table that someone has moved from its usual place. When he turns round again, he narrowly misses hitting the corner of a desk.